Embrace Smart Home Automation in Your St. Augustine Property

Every home is different, and the smart technologies that are essential in one area of the world might be far less valuable in another home. For beachfront homeowners in Florida, there are a lot of exciting smart home automation features that can add value and convenience to your property. Whether you’re in Jacksonville, St. Augustine, or somewhere else along the north east coast, keep reading to learn about the best tech for your needs.

Outdoor Entertainment

A dedicated home theater system is often considered a must-have for luxury properties. With the gorgeous view of the ocean and wonderful weather, many Florida residents opt to take their theaters outside. An outdoor theater requires strategic planning to mitigate ambient light and ensure that the area has great acoustics, but the end result is an amazing movie-watching experience.

Beyond home theaters, your beachfront property should be equipped with the best outdoor audio system for entertaining friends and family. Special weather-resistant speakers and high-end audio equipment are the way to go. Combine your audio system with fully automated landscape lighting, then create a “Party” scene that crafts the perfect atmosphere for a fun evening.

SEE ALSO: Brighten Up the Winter with Home Lighting Control

A Helpful Checklist from Georgia’s Home Theater Experts

Not all home theaters are created equal. While you can technically stick a screen on the wall and a projector on a table and call it a home theater, there is a very distinct difference in quality between a DIY home theater and a professionally installed system. If you want a home theater system for your Alpharetta-Milton area home that is top quality across the board, then here are the seven characteristics it needs to have.

SEE ALSO: Considering a Home Theater Installation? Here’s What to Expect

Georgia’s Top Home Theater Store Gives a Sneak Peak of What’s to Come

If there’s one thing that’s constant in this world, it’s change. 2017 is going to see a lot of great advances in home theater technologies—are you planning on taking advantage of them? Before you head over to your local Alpharetta-Milton home theater store, take a look at our predictions for next year's biggest home theater trends.

1. 4K Displays

Still stuck using a regular HD display for your theater system? By the end of 2017, you’ll be hard pressed to find a television for sale that isn’t 4K Ultra HD. These upgraded displays boast four times the number of pixels, and now that they’ve entered mainstream adoption, they’re really quite affordable. Whether you want a regular television or a traditional projector and screen, if you’re planning on investing in a home theater, 4K is a must-have.

2. Full Automation

The cinema experience isn’t complete without the feeling of just sitting down and having the theater come to life in front of you. That’s possible with smart home automation. With automation, all of the elements in the theater room are connected into one easily manageable system. You never have to go through the manual effort of turning on the projector, lowering the screen, turning off the lights, closing the window shades, and so forth. Instead, just sit down, press the “Movie” button, and the rest happens automatically.

SEE ALSO: Home Theater Installation Guide: 5 Must-Have Features

3 Great Landscape Lighting Technologies for Your Florida Property

While the winter weather isn’t as bad in Florida as it is up north, even homeowners in the Sunshine State have to deal with the gloomy darkness of the winter season. Shortly, the festive Christmas lights that have brightened up the streets will be gone, leaving St. Augustine homes dim until Daylight Saving Time in March.

But there’s good news! With a stylish lighting design and some hands-free automation technology, your home’s exterior can be cheery and bright all season long. To learn about home lighting control and how you can use it to make your property’s landscape shine, read on.

Five Things to Look for in a Low Voltage Contractor

If you have decided to join the growing number of homeowners in the Alpharetta-Milton area who have embraced smart home automation, then you have a big choice in front of you. Picking out the right low voltage contractor is about more than just price or location—it’s about having a company who will do it right the first time and be available for any future needs. Whether you’re looking for a contractor to install a new security system or you want a complete solution with lighting control, motorized shades, audio video, and more, make sure you keep in mind these five characteristics of a quality smart home company in Georgia.

SEE MORE: What is Smart Home Automation? Learn the Modern Definition